CharmingCharlie

After nearly a month of speculation and racing around with our smart phones trying to decode QRcodes we finally got our answer on the 11th December 2010 a day that will live in infamy. We finally got to see the first CG trailer for Mass Effect 3 and what an epic trailer.

Once more you take on the role of Commander Shepard and this time the odds are really stacked against you. In the previous games Commander Shepard managed to thwart the Reapers not once but TWICE. However now things are different the gloves are off and Harbinger is not playing the "nice guy" anymore. The final instalment of Shepards adventure looks set to involve a massive invasion of the Reaper fleet and their primary target is Earth. Will Earth burn ?, will Shepard manage to rally the different Citadel races to his cause ? .......... you will find out around the end of 2011.

Confirmed Features

Game will show a “previously on Mass Effect” comic to make decisions if you’re starting from scartch

Enhanced RPG elements

More freedom with character skills

Mods returning, swap out different parts such as barrels, scopes (effect both the weapon’s combat performance and its appearance)

All classes can wield all weapons unhindered now

Numerous endings

Shooting specific armor parts can have certain effects, and the AI of the enemies will have them routing Shepard and will coordinate with each other

Battlefields are going to be a great deal larger, and combat will be very varied.

You will begin ME3 with most of your powers from ME2, that will get evolved in different ways later on

New skills: Engineer can build turrets.

Space Battles (NOT CONFIRMED BUT HINTED AT)

Scenarios: larger. We will see people walking, ships fighting, architecture in greater detail. Searching for the photorealism of the sites using new lighting techniques on the stage

Screenshots(click for bigger versions)

Trailers

E3 Trailer

E3 Microsoft ME3 Compatibility "Showcase"

Platforms

Note this is probably NOT the final artwork (which is a pity I think it looks pretty good) however it does hint that we will get a simultaneous release across the PC, PS3 and 360 which is good to hear.

EA has confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will see a simultaneous release on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. see here

CharmingCharlie

It could be a Mass Effect spin off, the Reapers got hold of a VHS copy of Terminator and have decided to travel back in time and murder Commander Shepards Great Great Great Grandfather .

I am hoping this isn't just a straight shooter though. I can't see anything bad about an RPG set around a modern warfare theme myself and it is certainly a game I would happily pick up (and there doesn't even have to be sexy blue aliens in it).

Moonshield

My thoughts exactly. A modern combat action rpg might be pretty fresh too. I just hope it wouldn't just be a Mass Effect clone with different plot/story/characters/setting. I do think, however, that this might be set in the 'near future', judging from the dude's attire.

CharmingCharlie

Nah I would be shocked to the core if this was Mass Effect 3, although some others have commented that the rifle the old chap is using in the screenshot looks eerily familiar and is nearly a carbon copy of the Incisor sniper rifle used in Mass Effect 2 :-

I will tell you something I really want what Bioware are smoking these days because it is "hella trippy" a Bioware dev has started up a photo album here :-

On there you will find the screenshot I posted and erm these two things :-

Mobile barcode scan = 001101010011010100101110001110000011010000110101Converted to decimal it comes to 55.845 (Google says its the atomic mass of iron)

Mobile barcode scan = 0010110100110001001100100011100000101110001101011011000001000110Converted it comes to -128.5°F (the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth)

Now for those that don't know what the hell those graphics are, they are mobile barcodes. If you point your smart phone at the screen it scans the picture and gives you a link. I just tried it with my smart phone and just get a bunch of binary numbers.

OysterBarron

they do look almost identical apart from the colors! your not the only one that would be shocked i want to know what happens with the! BIG MASS EFFECT 2 SPOILER!!! loads of reaper ships waiting just outside of the galaxy but thinking along those lines they could get away with a prequel perhaps if they tell the story of the other times the reapers have cleared the galaxy of all life

PS charlie i thought those barcode things were for blackberry phones only!

Minic

Anything Bioware makes tends be pretty brilliant and has my instant attention. I do like the idea of a modern day combat type RPG and it would be interesting to see how the make it work, but all we can do for now is speculate I guess.

Robinski

they do look almost identical apart from the colors! your not the only one that would be shocked i want to know what happens with the! BIG MASS EFFECT 2 SPOILER!!! loads of reaper ships waiting just outside of the galaxy but thinking along those lines they could get away with a prequel perhaps if they tell the story of the other times the reapers have cleared the galaxy of all life

PS charlie i thought those barcode things were for blackberry phones only!

The other times this happened in the ME universe humans wouldn't have been on the scene, we'd still be living in caves at the time (in the most recent scenario)

CharmingCharlie

well i translated the binary to text and got back what looked like a youtube code in the base64 code form but it leads to nothing!

one reads as -128 degrees faranheight

Yeah one code translates as -128 degrees Fahrenheit which is apparently the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth. The other barcode converted to decimal comes out as "55.845" which is apparently the atomic mass of iron.

I really don't know where Bioware are going with these barcodes, at first I thought the first barcode was simply a mistake by the guy that started the album, but he later added the second barcode. These barcodes are definitely something to do with the game though.

Ok here is some wild speculation for you from another board. The second barcode translates to -128.5 which is the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth. The location of this temperature recording was at Vostok, Antarctica on July 21, 1983. Now if you go to the Mass Effect Wiki here you will see there is a planetary system called Vostok which happens to be a METAL rich planet.

You got to love all this speculation, unfortunately we probably won't have any answers till 11th December

OysterBarron

all this info while we are debating hell yeah! keep it coming charlie. but could be a fake you said he posted the main picture and then those 2 things after and you yourself thought it was a mistake, but its to much of a coincidence!

throwing this in the ring for explanation: This is found in the vostok system

The Yokel

That rifle looks mighty close to the DLC sniper rifle from Mass Effect 2. I'd be extremely happy if it's a C-Sec game. Since ME1 I wanted a C-Sec FPS or TPS. Of course RPG elements are always welcome. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just ME3 though.

Am I the only one that thinks that dude from screenshot looks kinda like Michael Madsen

CharmingCharlie

@CharmingCharlie: you got translation to the barcodes and binary stuff mixed up.

Ooops my bad so I did, fixed it up, quite a novel thing these QR code jobbies. It is certainly interesting seeing a developer using them as a tool to hype their games, even if they are being sadistically cryptic about it all.

Fnorg

Are you sure it's a new IP? Seems a bit too "out there" to be ME3 (no relevance to Shepard or anything Mass Effect except the Incisor rifle), but it's not impossible. Could also be a game named Cold Iron, or a game whose main character is named Cole Irons.

It's all wild speculation at this point though. But I'm really, really, really hoping that this topic will be renamed "Mass Effect 3" come December 11th.